aged tower, and may have remained the type for some time
before the more elaborate structure was evolved. However this may be, we
are justified in associating the mountain _motif_ with the beginnings of
religious architecture in the Euphrates Valley, precisely as the
underlying cosmic notions belong to the earliest period of which we have
any knowledge. That the staged tower when once evolved was regarded as
the most satisfactory expression of the religious ideas follows from the
fact that all the large centers of Babylonia had a zikkurat of some kind
dedicated to the patron deity, and probably many of the smaller places
likewise. A list of zikkurats[1322] furnishes the names of no less than
twenty; and while all of the important places are included, there are
others which do not appear to have played an important part in either
the religious or political history of the country, and which
nevertheless had their zikkurat. To judge from the fact that in this
list several names of zikkurat are connected with one and the same
place, more than one zikkurat, indeed, could be found in a large
religious center.[1323]

The Construction and Character of the Zikkurats.

The zikkurat was quadrangular in shape. The orientation of the four
corners towards the four cardinal points was only approximate.[1324]
Inasmuch as the rulers of Babylonia from a very early period call
themselves 'king of the four regions,'[1325] it has been supposed that
the quadrangular shape was chosen designedly; but there is no proof that
any stress was laid upon symbolism of this kind, or upon the orientation
of the corners of the sacred edifices. More attention was bestowed upon
making the brick structure huge and massive.

The height of the zikkurats varied. Those at Nippur and Ur[1326] appear
to have been about 90 feet high, while the tower at Borsippa which Sir
Henry Rawlinson carefully examined[1327] attained a height of 140 feet.
The base of this zikkurat, which may be regarded as a specimen of the
tower in its most elaborate form, was a quadrangular mass 272 feet
square and 26 feet high. The second and third stories were of equal
height, but the square mass diminished with each story by 42 feet. The
height of the four upper stories was 15 feet each. At the same time, the
mass diminished steadily at the rate of 42 feet, so that the seventh
story consisted of a mass of only 20 feet square. Sargon's zikkurat at
Khorsabad (the suburb of Nineveh) was a